Find It and Alphabet Bags

Language Rich Library Environments should foster a sense of wonder and discovery, and provide problem solving opportunities. Two items recently added to my Children’s Room do just that!

A recent trip to an educational toy store unearthed a game called Find It.  A 3-D take on Seek and Find books, Find It features tiny objects hidden in a tube filled with colorful plastic pieces that look like sprinkles. The idea is to shake the tube until you uncover all the treasures inside. The Kids version of the game contains letters, a feather, marble, ring, baseball, car, wiggle eye, flag, fish and many more objects. There are themed games as well such as Sports, On the Hunt, At the Beach and even Veggie Tales.  I bought two to start and they are a huge hit. Customers of all ages are drawn to these tubes. No one walks by them without touching them. Toddlers are drawn to the colors and the raspy noise the tubes make when they shake them. Preschoolers notice that there are objects among the recycled bits of plastic and begin looking for each one hidden inside. School aged kids and adults will flip and shake until they find all the objects inside.

Alphabet Bags sold by Lakeshore are similar to Find It but on a smaller scale, instead of tubes they are soft velour bags with a big, clear plastic window that lets kids peek inside. Each bag if a different color and has a letter on it and is filled with clear beads and objects that begin with the letter on the bag.  For example, the L bag has a lobster, lion, light bulb, ladybug, lettuce and lizard inside. They can be used as a Seek and Find game as well as an object and letter recognition activity.  They give children a hands-on way to explore letter sounds–from A to Z. Alphabet bags are a safe sensory toy for babies and toddlers. Toddlers discover them by touching and feeling the bags and they can often identify some of the objects inside. Preschoolers are able to identify the objects and begin to associate sounds with the objects. Caregivers and Children can enjoy these bags and have conversations about the objects, words, letters and sounds.

Find It and Alphabet Bags appeal to many ages, have many functions and offer opportunities for kids to explore independently or interact with caregivers while they are learning the names of objects and the sounds they make.